Water-cooled panel for open-hearth furnaces



July 26, 1949. L. l.. AUSLAND Em. -2,477,161

COOLED PANEL FOR OPEN-HEARTS FURNACES l WATER- 3 Sheets-Sheet l.

July 26, 1949. l.. L. AUSLAND ETAL WATER-COOLED PAqNEL FOR OPEN-HEARTHFURNAGES f 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Aug. 1, 1944 FIB-1-25.'

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lie/i /amfg IIIIIIIIIIIIIII'I July 26, 1949.

l.. L. AUSLAND ET AL WATER-COOLED PANEL FOR OPEN-HEARTH FURNACES FiledAug. 1, 1944 i l 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 Patented July 26, 1949 Leweuynl..Ausland and Join; F. Mmmm,

,Minn

Duluth Application August l, 1944, Serial No. 547,580

z claims. (ci. 12a-49s) v The present invention `relates .to animprovement in an' open hearth steel making furnace construction, andparticularly to the provision of a novel type of front wallcharacterized by the inclusion therein of prefabricated water-cooledpanel units adapted to be detachably incorporated in the front wall ofthe furnace between the charging door openings thereof anddetachaizvlyconnected to the buck-stays of the furnace.

An embodiment of the invention is illustrated in the accompanyingdrawings, in which:

Figure 1 isk a horizontal section through an open hearth furnaceincorporating the herein claimed improvements.

Figure 2 is an elevation of the improved furnace.

Figure 3 is an enlarged fragmentary elevation of the front wall of thefurnace.

Figure 4 is a vertical section on line IV--IV of Figure 3 illustratingmeans for detachably securing the water-cooled panel unit to thebuck-stays of the furnace.

Figures 5 and 6 are horizontal sections taken on the correspondinglynumbered lines of Figure 4.

Figures 'l and 8 are detail views of a rigging for facilitating theinstallation of the prefabricated panel units.

Heretofore the walls of an open hearth furnace have usually been builtup of refractory brick laid up in a manner well known to skilled furnacebricklayers. 'When repairs to the 'walls have been required during thecampaign of the furnace, it has been necessary to shut down the furnacetemporarily and clean out much of the eroded brickwork and to manuallyreplace it. To avoid materially cutting down the production of a givenfurnace, it is necessary that the period of shut-down for the purpose ofmaking repairs be as short as possible. Accordingly the furnace isallowed to cool down only to a sufficient degree to permit workmen toenter without being burned or overcome by the heat.

It is known to those skilled in the art that under ordinary conditionsthe furnace is never allowed to cool down to a point where it iscomfortable for a human being to work therein. l The heat is so intensethat it is frequently necessary for the operators to wear asbestosprotective garments. .A given workman can work within the hot furnacefor a very short time interval, and separate shifts of men are requiredfor a given repair job. Under the present invention the front wall ofthe length of time the workmen are required to remain in the furnace ismaterially cut down.

Thus the repairmen are required to spend considerably less time underthe extreme temperature conditions.

Referring in detail to the embodiment of the invention illustrated,reference numeral I0 represents a somewhat conventional form of an openhearth steel making furnace having the usual hearth i2, the usual formof back wall I4, and the usual tapping hole I6. The present improvementisV directed particularly to the front wail,

which includes a plurality of charging door open- Vanchorage means suchas pins 32 welded to and projecting inwardly from the wall 2B.

Cooling water enters each panel unit by way of a pipe @t whichcommunicates with the distributor pipe 3d located within the unit andprovided with a plurality of discharge orifices 38. Within the hollowchamber of each unit there is al baille wall d@ adapted to compel thecooling water to circulate in a tortuous path, as indicated by thearrows in Figure 4. The cooling water thus leaves each panel unit by wayof an outlet pipe 2 which discharges into a suitable sump or storagetank (not shown). The water-cooled panel units of our invention areadapted to be readily incorporated in open hearth furnaces of otherwiseconventional design. For this reason we provide means for detachablysecuring the units to the conventional buck-stays of a furnace.

that it extends from the portion immediately below the skew brick E6near the roof of the furnace. almost to the level or plane 58 of thebottom of the door openings, the space between the level 5B and thelower wall 60 of the panel unit being illed with one or more courses ofbrickwork 62 and the space between the top wall 64 of the panel unit andthe under-side of the skew brick 56 being conveniently filled withchrome patch vcement or other suitable furnace refractory material, asindicated at 66. Thus it will be understood by those skilled in the artthat when it is necessary to make repairs to the front wall of thefurnace the water-cooled panels can be removed bodily as separate units,and previously prepared or prefabricated replacement panel units can bereadily installed. Each-prefabricated panel unit is provided with anotched portion delined by inclined walls 68 and l0 which furnishconvenient supports for the brickwork arches l2 constituting the topwalls of the door openings. the door opening will be eroded to such-anextent that it will be necessary to replace it at the same time that thepanels are being replaced. If this brickwork is not to be replaced it isnecessary to provide a temporary support for the arch to prevent all ofthe brickwork from falling while the panel is being replaced.

To facilitate the quick installation of the water-cooled panel units, wend it advantageous,

In most instances the brickwork over means whereby rapid repmrs can bemade to the front walls of an open hearth furnace and thus eliminate thenecessity of men working for long periods of time under elevatedtemperature conditions. Thus the comfort of the workmen will be greaterand the time necessary for making repairs will be minimized. It will beunderstood that when the refractory material such as chrome patch cementor the like burns out in any given panel, the panel is removed as a unitand a previously prefabricated panel unit is substituted for theburned-out or damaged unit. The invention will provide better front wallconditions throughout the campaign of the furnace, since there will bean incentive for frequent repairs so as to maintain optimum furnaceconditions, since the repairs can be made more frequently because of theease and comparative comfort for the workmen engaged in this task.

Various modications may be made without departure from the invention asdened in th appended claims.

We claim:

l. An open hearth furnace having a front wall formed with a plurality ofcharging door openings, an arch over each door opening, verticalalthough not absolutely essential, to utilize the installation riggingshown in Figures 7 and 8. This rigging comprises an L-shaped rod 14, tothe lower end of which there is secured a plate 16 having a pipe-likesleeve 18 welded or otherwise secured thereto, the plate beingadjustably supported by a nut 80 screwed on the threaded end 82 of therod. The upper leg 84 of the rod is bent to a substantially horizontalposition, and is adapted to be inserted in a hole 86 located at anyconvenient point in the buck-stay below the detachably secured hook 4S.In using this rigging the panel unit is positioned on the plate 16 andthe unit is pushed forward clear of the edge 44 of the buck-stay, asshown in Figure 7. The plate 'lB with the panel unit supported thereonis then rotated so that the outer face of the panel unit is parallelwith the inner face ofthe buckstay. When thus positioned the member 46ls dropped so that the hooked endv 54 thereof engages the retainer bar52. Suitable temporary supports such as bricks or blocks are then placedunder the. panel unit to temporarily hold it in space between the bottomof the skewback and the top of the panel unit.

It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the inventionshown and described provides buck-stays bearing on the outside of saidfront wall between said openings, the front wall portions between eachadjacent pairs of said openings comprising hollow metallic water-cooledreadily removable panel units whose inner faces are recessed and linedwith non-metallic refractory material, each of said panel units having arecess in the outer upper part thereof, a rod spanning said outer recessand carried by the panel, and anchorage means pivotally mounted on oneof said buck-stays and having ahook portion extending over said rod fordetachably connecting said panel to said buck-stays.

2. An open hearth furnace according to claim 1 in which each'of saidpanels has a notched recess therein adjacent the door opening associatedtherewith for supporting the arch of said charging door opening.

LEWELLYN L. AUSLAND. JOI-IN F. MCLIMANS.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the ille ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 850,155 Hammerberg Apr. 16, 1907853,698 Hunter May 14, 1907 1,011,476 Neeland Dec, 12, 1911 1,376,617Griggs May 3, 1921 1,426,748 Lewis Aug. 22, 1922 1,514,307 Shuman Nov.4, 1924

